Jeremy Sisto previews SUBURGATORY’s “Sex and the Suburbs”

SUBURGATORY is back tonight with an all new episode that finds George still reeling from discovering the “Love Box” Lisa gave to Tessa for her night with Scott (that wasn’t). The usually cool George is right back where the whole thing started, and does his best to prevent Tessa from having any interest in sex and/or alone time with her boyfriend. To celebrate the insta-classic episode, I spoke with Jeremy Sisto about what’s coming up tonight and what happens when Elton’s girl Cher joins the party later this year (CLUELESS reference – Alicia Silverstone joins the show for a multi-ep arc this Spring)!

Excited to get back to some new episodes of SUBURGATORY!
Me too!

When we left the show, with our last new episode, George is back dealing with in Manhattan – finding this box of “goodies”so to speak. How he handle that in tonight’s episode?
He’s a bit of a mess this next episode! It’s his big issue – the issue that cause this whole show to happen. His desperate attempt to not accept the fact that his daughter is going to grow up. He makes a few desperate stabs at trying to keep, stay in denial of the fact that she is going to grow up, and is pretty wacky about it. And then he gets called into question, his masculinity, because he is starting to come off very prudish, in the sense that he is appalled that a 16 year old would have any inclination towards having sex. And his friend Noah lays out for him that he’s kind of lost some masculinity along the way, and so then he becomes kind of insecure about that, and desperate to prove otherwise. Overall, it’s not the prettiest side of George, but one of his funnier sides, and there are some really awkward sexual encounters that I think people will find very, very funny!

I love the relationships with George and Tessa / Noah, everybody – is there a favorite “duo” or relationship that you enjoy playing?
They’re all good in their little ways. With each one of them, I get excited about them. The thing with Tessa is probably the most, not to say it’s work, but it requires the most something from me [laughs]. The most involvement. There’s some element, always with Dallas and Noah, kind of laughing at them and they always have such crazy, wacky things to do, and they play them so funny, and really, both Alan and Cheryl just kill with these characters, and so those are just fun to watch them. And Jane is just such a great little actress. Our relationship is so unique. There’s kind of more riding on that for me, in the sense that I want to maintain that level of specialness that this relationship has, and uniqueness. So that’s probably the one that I’m excited about, and I know is going to require more from me.

Beyond this week’s episode – we have the news that Alicia is joining the show for a few episodes – how was that for you to get back on screen with her? Was it an instant thing?
It’s been great. She’s still on through the end of the season, and we’re about to start our last episode. It’s been a real treat for me. We were friends when we both started in the business, when we were both teenagers, and so it’s really, really cool to reconnect with someone like that. We really completely lost touch with each other, so it’s been awesome. It’s been really nice to have her around. And the relationship is interesting. It brings in a lot of conflict into the world and so there is some really [great stuff]; a lot of the greatest parts of this show are when situations reveal new sides to characters like Noah or Dallas that are believable because of how they’re played, but just really, really funny. How she comes into the story causes some new neuroses, I’ll say, from some of our wackier characters.

It’s a little scary to think about new neuroses on top of the neuroses they already have!
[laughs] I know, right?

Why do you think that now, coming for this run of new episodes – why is now a great time to get involved with SUBURGATORY?
This next episode is kind of a great place, if you haven’t watched, because it hits at the heart of what the show is. It delivers in a more substantial way what the premise is about, and that is the anchor of the show. The relationship between Tessa and George, and being a parent to a child who is about to be an adult, or is a young adult. I think it’s a good place to come in and watch it now, because you get anchored into that relationship right away, and of course, you have all of the other wackiness going on around us. It’s a really good one to start watching if you haven’t started watching because it brings yo into our relationship as well!

SUBURGATORY airs on ABC Wednesdays at 8:30/7:30c. For more information on the show, head to ABC.com!